bern
/bɝn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.14 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A unisex given name, variant of Bernie.
name
A unisex given name, variant of Bernie.
Example Sentences
- "Although the researchers found that, on average, narcissism gradually declined as people aged, “the results show that this decline is not as large as one might hope,” said Ulrich Orth, the lead author of the paper and a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland."
Etymology
From Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin. A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology). The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve out, cut”)) and *branos (“raven”) (compare the name ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ (BRENODŌR), on the Bern zinc tablet, which has also been connected with the Gaulish name Brennus). More at Bern.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Bärn, -, *berna, *bʰerH-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɝn/
- British English: /bɜː(ɹ)n/